F1: Champs Red Bull Racing unveil the 2012 car, the RB8

The champions have unveiled their 2012 Formula 1 car – Infiniti and Red Bull Racing will be looking to the new RB8 to continue where the RB7 left off last year, which was to score 12 victories, 27 podiums and 18 pole positions on its way to bag both the Contructors’ title and Drivers’ crown for Sebastian Vettel.

The Renault 2.4 litre V8-powered car features more prominent branding of the Infiniti name in the livery, given the deepening of the partnership between the two companies that was announced in October last year. With that, the RB8 wears enhanced logos on the racing car along with the drivers’ overalls and gloves, team personnel and equipment.

Testing on the new car has begun in Jerez. Will the RB8 make it three in a row for Seb and RBR?

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

Stop dreaming! RBR just third or fourth fastest car in 2012…
When blown diffusser ban from F1,’weapon’ that make slow car like RBR looks great,RBR will looks like ordinary team just like other midfielder muahaha!

yeah, there seem to be an opening at the stepped section of the nose. Interesting. Don’t think it’s anything very significant but just their way of cleverly managing the airflow in that area to negate the disturbance now created by the ‘step’

I think this car won’t be as dominant as last season. The car last year was designed around the blown diffuser which is why it worked so well. But it was never the fastest car in a straight line, it gained all its time in the corners (where the blown diffuser has most effect). Having said that another Adrian Newey designed car isn’t going to fall down the field very far.
The slot in the nose step is for a vent to manage air flow to the drivers, they had a similar system last season however the vent was a small oval in the end of the nose

I don’t think the vent in the step is primarily to manage air flow (cool cockpit) though I’m not surprised if some of it is used to do that. The vent is too big for that purpose. I think it’s primarily to negate the negative effects of the step by managing that flow and venting it out somewhere.

I think it is still too early to tell whether the RB8 is going to be dominant or otherwise but so far right out the box with Webber behind the wheel, it’s immediately positive. According to Webber the car did not exhibit any apparent issues and that is always a very positive sign.

The RedBull has been strong the last two seasons and blown diffuser I think only became the centre piece last season. Therefore it is an inherently strong package. And typically in F1, it is rarely down to a single component on the car. It’s the whole package.

The lack of straightline top speed is mostly due to the Renault engine. Peak power is weaker than the Mercedes V8, which is the strongest right now in terms of peak. However the Renault is good everywhere else. Red Bull clearly believed it was not worth compromising aero downforce to offset the Renault’s straightline weakness at the few high speed circuits

Adrian Newey himself confirmed that the vent was for managing air flow through the cockpit (though these no way to tell if he’s telling the whole truth) Funneling the air through the car to elsewhere wouldn’t be a good option, it would cause a lack of downforce where the air goes in as it won’t be moving across the car like it should – it’s also something i believe is banned following the f-duct.

“it is rarely down to a single component on the car.” – in recent years it all been down to a single component on the cars, Brawn only won the chamionship due to being the only team with a double diffuser in the first few races that worked with the rest of the car, they struggled through the second half of the season once the other teams had developed theirs.
McLaren was able to stay with the top runners using their F-Duct (remember Button’s massive wing at Monza?) being the best in the field
And last season Red Bull had the best blown diffuser (look at how different things were when it was banned for Silverstone)

Peter Sauber doesn’t believe anyone has a piece of technology this year that puts them ahead of the others, though i think McLarens nose could be the closest thing to it.

“blown diffuser I think only became the centre piece last season”
It was only developed last season, and the rest of the car was designed around it which is why it worked so well for Red Bull, other teams had to adapt it to a car that was designed without it, so many alterations would have been needed to use it effectively

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